To understand the history of sugar beets and the reasons for the crop's development.
	To become familiar with the climatic and edaphic requirements for sugar beets production.
	To become familiar with the culture and management of sugar beets.
	Be able to contrast sugarcane and sugar beets and understand the place each occupies in world sugar production.

Unlike sugarcane, the sugarbeet is a very new arrival as a crop plant.  The first mention of the sugar (sucrose) content in beets came in 1747.  This discovery by Andreas Marggrat led to the development of the sugarbeet industry in Europe.  The Austro-Hungarian, German, and French nations were anxious for a source of sugar.  Britain controlled much of the sugar trade.  Napoleon was an early champion of the beet industry.

Sugar beets are widely adapted in the temperate zone, growing from southern Canada to Mexico at elevations from sea level to 7000 feet.  Beets prefer medium to light textured soils (must be able to dig them at harvest) with high pH?s (6-7.5).  Beets have a high tolerance to alkali pH.  Where there is less than 18" of rainfall, irrigation is necessary.  Optimum temperature for growth is 240 C, for root growth - 17-200C (67-720F).

Sugar beets are a C-3 plant, grown for 5-6 months.  Sugarcane is a C-4 plant grown for 12+ months.  Therefore, sugarcane produces higher yields of sugar than beets, but cane is a tropical crop and cannot be grown in many areas.  The sugarbeet offers an alternative to sugar import.  In the U. S. 35-40% of the sugar used is domestic beet sugar; the rest is cane with most of that being imported.  The sugarbeet industry is subsidized to assure sugar supply, much the same as was the case in Europe 250 years ago when beets were first grown for sugar.

1. Beta vulgaris - Chenopodiaceae family

2. Beta maritima - Sea beet

• Progenitor of sugarbeet
• Grows wild along Mediterranean and Atlantic Oceans in Europe
• Readily intercrossed with B. vulgaris

1. 1747 - Andreas Marggrat discovered that beets contained sucrose.

2. 1799 - Franz Carl Achard - received grant from Fredrick William III to improve beet as source of sugar.

• Collected 26 beet varieties
• Crossed selected, purified type richest in sugar "white Silesian" - ancestress of all sugarbeets
• In sugar factory, discovered methods for sugar extraction, purification, crystallization
• "Father of Sugarbeets Industry" but died poor and unrecognized

4. Philippe Andre'de Vilmorin selected, bred beet for higher sugar, more yield - produced the "Imperial Beet."

5. By 1875, Louis de Vilmorin - through mass selection, progeny tests, quick selection methods brought beet sucrose content and productivity up to levels approaching those grown today.

6. U. S. History - repeated failures.

• Abandoned after three years
• First successful factory: Alvarado, CA, 1875.

Main reason for factory abandonment.

1. Curley top virus carried by sugarbeet leaf hopper

• Cause of repeated failures in states west of Rocky Mountains
• Spread due to weed invasion into over grazed or abandoned rangeland - mustards and Russian thistle which harbored leaf hopper
• Symptoms:
• Inward curling of leaves
• Vein distortion, whole plant stunting
• Large numbers of rootlets on small roots
• Resistant variety US1 released 1933

• Top blight (infected leaves turn dry and brown)
• Root dwarfing
• Reduction of sugar percent
• Resistant variety US217 introduced 1937

• Aphanarayces cochlioides - most important
• Symptoms: browning/blackening of seedling stems and roots. Kill rate slow or fast
• Control:
• Long rotations
• Proper drainage/fertilization
• Fungicide seed treatments
• Resistant varieties

1. World. Grown on 16.9 million acres producing 220 million metric tons or 13 MT/A.

2. U. S.:

• 1970-72: 48 million metric tons grown on 13.7 million acres or about 20T/A
• Average size of sugarbeet farm is 62 acres, in some states average over 100 acres. Currently 18,300 grower

1. Extent of cultivation: From S. Canada to Mexican border elevations from sea level to 7000 ft.

2. Soils: Wide variety. Optimum pH 6-7.5. Prefers medium to medium light textured. High tolerance to alkali pH.

3. Moisture: Where precipitation < 18" requires irrigation. All production in west irrigated. East production (ND, IA) not irrigated. Evapotranpiration rate is 21" in S. Canada to 40" in AZ.

4. Temperature: Optimum for plant growth is 24⁰C. Optimum for root growth 17-20⁰C. Highest sugar content - avg. Summer 67-72⁰F. Sugarbeets make good vegetative growth in the South, but roots have low sugar.

Growth and development

1. Sugarbeet is biennial - requires two years to complete life cycle.

• First year develops root
• Second year sends up seed stalk and flowers

• Can happen in first year with prolonged cool periods

4. Sugarbeet is cross-pollinated by wind or insects.

5. Mature inflorescence - seedbush - large panicle-like open spikes that bear clasping flowers and seeds.

6. The sugarbeet fruit - seedball is an aggregate formed by cohesion of two or more flowers that have grown together to form hard, dry irregular body - 2-5 seeds. Also called multigerm seedball.

7. Monogerm seedball plant discovered 1948 - trait since transferred into improved disease-resistant varieties and hybrids.

Rotations

1. Sugarbeet always grown in rotation due to:

• Depressed yields in continuous culture
• Build up of fungal pathogens in soil
• Build up of Sugarbeet nematode -
• Tiny white eelworm
• Attacks roots
• Kills, stunts plants

Irrigation - definite pattern

1. Prior to planting - light irrigation.

2. Planting - light irrigation.

3. Young developing plants - several light irrigations.

4. Mid-season - heavy irrigations - moisture demand increases as root develops.

5. 2-5 weeks before harvest - stop irrigation; puts plants under moisture stress - increases percent sugar without lowering yield/acre.

Seedbed preparation

1. Firm, fine but not compacted.

2. Fall plow 8-12 inches.

3. Chisel or subsoil if compacted subsoil.

Fertilization - high rates needed.

1. 0-168 lb/A nitrogen split application.

• Too much or too late lowers percent sugar
• Up to 200-400 lb/A P (superphosphate).
• K usually sufficient.
• B1, Zn, Cu, or Fe sometimes required.

1. Shallow - 0.75-1.25 inch deep.

2. Dates: fall-winter for CA; March-May for other areas.

3. Row spacing: 18-22 inches in West. Often planted on elevated beds.

4. Rate: Unprocessed monogerm or processed multigerm: 5-8 lb. Polished monogerm = 1.5-4 lbs. Precision planting: 1 lb/A (4-6 seeds/ft)

Thinning

1. Monogerm - done mechanically by cross-row cultivation (knife weeder or cultivator) or down row (rotary weeder- uproots plant at fixed interval).

2. Multigerm seed (unprocessed).

• Requires blocking - removing seedlings at intervals
• Hand thinning of remaining clumps to l plant
• Hand blocking/thinning - 20-40 hours/acre

4. Final population: 21-36,000 pts/a (8-10" between plants).

Harvesting

1. Delayed as long as possible to reach max sugar percent.

• East: Sept. 20-Nov. 25
• West: Sept. 20-Dec. 15
• Fall planted: April 1-Aug. 15

By-products

1. Pulp - stock feed, ensiled or fed fresh.

2. Molasses.

• Added to pulp for feed.
• Used in manufacture of alcohol.
• Contains glutamic acid - used to make msg
• High in minerals

4. Fresh tops - ensiled or fed dried.

• Good for cattle
• Dangerous for pigs, horses - too much oxalic acid

1. Must be grown within feasible shipping distances.

2. 10,000 acres or more beets needed to keep factory operating during season. 65-200 days.

3. All beets grown under contract to sugar company.

4. Company furnishes:

• Sugar analyzes and instruction to growers on when to harvest
• Beet seed - either produces (breeds) or procures for grower

1. Hybrid seed possible due to finding of C.M.S.

2. European breeders frequently use polyploid (triploid seed) - produces larger beets on plants that are sterile.

3. Characteristics improved by breeding:

• Yield - up to 20-30 T/A
• Sugar content - up to 22% but 18% with good yields
• Disease resistance - curly top, Cercospora, black
• Monogerm seed
• Seedling vigor
• Non-bolting varieties

1. Average yield: 258 lb/T or > 5000 lb. sugar/acre.
 

Sugar beets fill an important niche in world sugar production.  They allow for the production of sugar in the cooler portions of the world.  Beets produce a high quality sugar and provides a degree of security for sugar supply for many nations.  Allowed to compete without subsidy, beet sugar is not competitive with cane sugar.

	What is the history of sugarbeet production?  Why did the industry develop in central Europe?
	Where are sugarbeets grown?  What are the climatic and edaphic requirements for sugarbeets?
	How does the sugarbeet compare to sugarcane for sugar production?  Why is there a difference?
	What is the reason many countries subsidize sugarabeet production?